Victor Hugo said of
a small girl
playing the
doll that she satisfied the deepest
instinct of the woman. A small girl, indeed, indifferent to dolls would
seem
abnormal as would be a boy who would not care at all about soldiers or
ships.

zzzzzzzHer
Majesty Queen Victoria died in eighty two years after sixty years from
reign. She had become from the age of 12 years, heir
présomptive of the
throne after the death of her father. When she lived still in the very
tense atmosphere of Kensington's old castle with her parents, that is
well before to become a queen, the small princess Alexandrina - because
she was called so (she will appeal by the second first name, Victoria,
only later)-, appeared in first position in the hereditary order in the
crown, but this place of choice was constantly at mercy of the birth of
a heir Male which would have been better placed. Her mother, Victoire,
and her secretary, the schemer Conroy, multiplied moreover sets
competing for power, persuading notably the Parliament to nominate her
as regent, - the health of the sovereign, Guillaume IV, being
precarious, and trying and obtaining to force Victoria to submit
herself to her will by agreeing to remain under her regent's custody
until her twenty one years, (that is three years even after the legal
age to acced to throne). Receiving few visits, Victoria, mostly only,
had enjoyed to constitute a remarkable collection of dolls.

The
publication of an article in " Strand Magazine " in 1893, realizing
those with that her Majesty had played in her childhood, had aroused a
big curiosity and a lot interest. It was due, doubtless, to
the
personality of the Queen but also, certainly , to the feeling more
profoundly anchored in the heart of the Britishs, their affection,
their loyal interest in facts and gestures of their great Sovereign.
Child, the Queen Victoria was involved in her dolls and played with
them until the age of almost fourteen years. They were small
wooden dolls that she often dressed herself. She had a house in which
she could install them. The future Queen saw suits that she had seen in
the theater or in the daily life. She brought to it a big care, an
attention and an importance . A moving and very interesting proof to be
found in an ordinary copy-book now
little yellow with years on the inside cover of which is written in
a childish but determinated handwritting " Archives of dolls
".

Then follows in a delicate feminine writing the name of each
doll, whom it was dressed, what she represents and which - though this
is
sometimes omitted - when the doll is a dancer, date and name of the
ballet are, what which determines the exact time of the garment, for
example, between 1831 and 1833.

Hundred thirty two dolls preserved respectable figure, the Queen
herself seems to have dressed at least thirty-two, Baroness Lehzen
sometimes helped with something, because that is scrupulously recorded
in this little notebook.

These
dolls really deserved to be transmitted to posterity as an example of
patience, ingenuity and know-how of a exquisite Princess twelve years.

It is not what is called the " beautiful dolls. " No leathers
thin biscuit very pure, complicated mechanisms. Instead, it seems it
simple dolls you could buy for pennies in any bazaar. At the time, the
beautiful doll was not easy to obtain but it is also possible that the
young Princess preferred to those funny little wooden creatures,
finding them more suitable for the representation of historical and
theatrical, perhaps ... In any case, they comprise the entire
collection. These are small puppets perfectly articulated knees,
thighs, elbows and shoulders, able to perform any act or have any
attitude ...

It
is true that they are not aesthetically beautiful. German-style face,
sometimes with a nutcracker chin, nose a little too right ....
expressions are very varied, but with the exception of height, which
ranges from three to nine inches, they are all similar

And if the pleasures of the imagination, creation and
realization
are delicious in the child, making clothes for 32 dolls was a
particularly ingenious work for such a young child. There is no doubt
that the Princess had a lot of pure happiness with his large family of
wood. There is a very touching mixture of childhood and maturity in
their young faces.

And
this precisely because of the combination of small sharp nose and
cheeks and bright vermilion, broad brow, well separated on each temple
are painted with elaborate ringlets quaint and gray while the remaining
hair, deep black is identified by a yellow comb, tiny, perched on top
of the head.
.LLLL
Every
luxury was in costume! The clothes are made of materials the most
extraordinary: the most precious silks, lace high-priced, small jewelry
work infinitely delicate, nothing was too good for these ladies. As for
the worker who dressed them, everyone could not use such a! LL Think
!..... the future Queen herself! It was at that time, personalities
that we would say very "current".LThey
were divided into large ladies, famous artists, or in simple peasant
maids .... Victoria gave them because the look of the characters of his
relatives or his entourage. Among the ladies, the Countess of Rothesey,
Lady Brighton, Princess Collovowsky etc., all beautifully dressed in
long robes with their trains, their wigs, their broad hats. Among
artists, there were the celebrities of the day: Miss Pauline Duvernay
in fairy costume, from Sleeping Beauty, Miss Porphyrin Brocard single
dancer costume, on the dancer Taglioni, so famous at the time It is not
less than three times in different costumes, that of William Tell, La
Sylphide and Bayadere.

There
are also three men there are only seven or eight in all, the
collection, (1)
and some
delicious little baby, tiny, made of fabric,
with faces painted muslin. Fluency in dresses is truly exquisite: folds
tiny, finely stitched, tiny pockets of aprons, all delicately finished,
to Lilliputian handkerchiefs! - A half inch - bordered days son learned
and initials embroidered in red silk, there are ladies of white pearls
and gold so small they slip by escaping from the hands, and we can not
being hit again by the address, the skill and patience that must have
the indefatigable young child !

Queen Victoria has
played as a child
receiving a liberal education in the midst of fleeting influences and
modes of the first part of the nineteenth century. But a thorough study
of this childhood imaginative show us the scenes that have affected the
stories that have enchanted characters who retained his costume party
and have impressed her imagination

Thus
we find in the course of his childhood, through these dolls, the
qualities of calmness, patience, firmness, tenacity shown successively
by Queen Victoria in the official part of his life after the death of
his father King, became heir presumptive to the throne, her old
governess, the Duchess of Northumberland devised using these dolls
certainly a game as fun as sewing but also at least as useful as that
which they had lent both up to date. To teach his students the Royal
Ceremonial very long and complicated court, she urged him to repeat it
using her dolls.

ZZThus
every night, dolls, provided
titles and functions,
were arrayed on the large table in the dining room of Kensington, and
the housekeeper, taking her hand in a doll dressed in royal robes
representing Victoria The walking in the midst of all these characters
making everyone a home to which he was entitled.
Thus the young Queen could, at the time of his advent, amaze
the
whole court by her poise, and skill with which she knew, from day one,
receive and process each according to his rank.

Such
is the story summarized dolls of Queen Victoria, history recalled in
one of the largest newspapers in London, The Strand Magazine in 1893.
A
very beautiful and very rare book that I am privileged to have been
published at the time with the permission of the queen herself - and
corrected it by the way ! - Entitled " QueenVictoria's Dolls "
by Frances
H. Low .
It is beautifully illustrated by Alan Wright watercolors dolls.
Some of them illustrate this article. The latter also owes much to the
year 1893 for "My Journal" in the year 1901 still "My Journal" Mrs
Annie Porot which provided me the material and the magazine "Doll News"
published by Autumn UFDCen 2003 - Article by Martha M. Martin It
is also history and its pathways. But Victoria, who loved her dolls,
was also an accomplished young woman, sensitive as we are ourselves to
family celebrations and carillonnées. Thus, she introduced
the
tradition of the Christmas tree in the United Kingdom, which provide a
Christmas tree every year in his palace.

" We still speak of time in
history where Queen Bertha was spinning. Perhaps, in hundreds of years
do we speak also of the time when Queen Victoria dressed her dolls."

Hélène
BUGAT-PUJOL

( 1 ) "There are also some dolls that are
gentlemen, but we
will not because we do not like dolls whiskers! "(My Journal 1893)

The
interest of the royal family for the dolls he would from that shown by
the young Queen Victoria ?
Here is a photo taken in 1930 of Queen Mary.